SGM Metals: The American Dream Social Contract has Been Irrevocably Broken . . .

Short cuts at present create a butterfly effect moving forward. To honor the social contract now will mean that no benefits will remain in the future for those who are tasked with generating that which is doled out at present. The contract is broken

People are waking up to the fact that the social contract has been broken . . .

PRLog - Nov. 15, 2012 - PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Silverbearcafe.com reports: [ The generations are now aligned as they always are during a Crisis:

History does not repeat but it does rhyme, because of the cyclical nature of human experience. The specific events that drive this Crisis are unknowable, but the generational response to these events can be predicted with uncanny accuracy. Each generation will play its assigned role during this Crisis. The current generational configuration will propel events & create a feedback loop that will change the course of human history on a scale consistent with the Depression/World War II, the Civil War & the American Revolution.

{ “What will propel these events? As the saeculum turns, each of today’s generations will enter a new phase of life, producing a Crisis constellation of Boomer elders, midlife 13ers, young adult Millennials, & children from the new Silent Generation. As each archetype asserts its new social role, American society will reach its peak of potency. The natural order givers will be elder Prophets, the natural order takers young Heroes. The no-nonsense bosses will be midlife Nomads, the sensitive souls the child Artists. No archetypal constellation can match the gravitational of this one – nor its power to congeal the natural dynamic of human history into new civic purposes. And none can match its potential power to condense countless arguments, anxieties, cynicisms, & pessimisms into one apocalyptic storm.” }- The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe

The mood of the country continues to blacken. A simmering anger boils beneath the surface of an everyday facade of normalcy. The middle class majority is being squeezed in a vice, with the rich powerful plutocrats on Wall Street & in Washington DC stealing their hard earned net worth through financial scams, the gutting of our industrial base & a tax system designed to benefit those who write the laws on one side & the parasitic willfully ignorant underclass that is sustained only through the extraction of taxes from the working middle class on the other side. Our society has become a hunger games tournament, with the few benefiting while the many scramble to survive. The stench of class warfare is in the air. The generational resentment & rage is palatable as the Millennial generation has taken on a trillion dollars of student loan debt at the behest of the Federal government, Wall Street & older generations, only to graduate into a jobless economy. The generational contract has been broken, as the older generations will not or cannot leave the workforce due to their own financial missteps. Younger generations are being denied entry level positions, even as the older generations expect them to fund their retirements & healthcare.

No matter who wins the election, there will be no turning back. It is more like Midnight in America on a bitterly cold dark February night as the gale force winds begin to gust, foretelling the approach of an epic winter blizzard. The opportunity to alleviate the impact of this Crisis was during the late 1990’s & early 2000’s, & we made all the wrong choices. Now we will pay the price. An era of depression & violence will be ushered in by an economic calamity that will make 2008 look tame. The next president will still be presiding over a country divided 50%/50%, with little or no common ground on most of the key issues that must be confronted. But, as we’ve seen in previous Crisis periods, bold leadership & history making decisions did not require consensus or even majority support. Only 10% of the colonial population drove the American Revolution.

{ “Soon after the catalyst, a national election will produce a sweeping political realignment, as one faction or coalition capitalizes on a new public demand for decisive action. Republicans, Democrats, or perhaps a new party will decisively win the long partisan tug of war. This new regime will enthrone itself for the duration of the Crisis. Regardless of its ideology, that new leadership will assert public authority & demand private sacrifice. Where leaders had once been inclined to alleviate societal pressures, they will now aggravate them to command the nation’s attention. The regeneracy will be solidly under way.” }– Strauss & Howe - The Fourth Turning

The Millennial generation is coming of age faced with the burdens of $1 trillion of student loan debt, a stagnant job market clogged by the Boomer generation that can’t afford to retire because they never got around to saving, ever increasing taxes to fund the promises made to their elders by politicians, & an unfunded entitlement liability of $100T for healthcare & pension benefits they will never see. The mathematical impossibility of sustaining our economic system is absolute. It will require courage, sacrifice, fortitude & a dramatic shift of our egocentric selfish culture to a culture of sustainability & caring about future generations. These are the times that will try men’s souls. The choices we make as a nation over the next few years will determine whether this Fourth Turning ends in a renewal of our founding principles or tragedy. Glory or ruin.

{ “Thus might the next Fourth Turning end in apocalypse – or glory. The nation could be ruined, its democracy destroyed, & millions of people scattered or killed. Or could enter a new golden age, triumphantly applying shared values to improve the human condition.” }– Strauss & Howe - The Fourth Turning]

The debate is fashioned in the sense that we have rich redneck republicans (RRR) who don’t want to share with the less fortunate citizens who are deserving of a handout. We can never make progress when we are as divided as we have become. Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” is being played out against the American people on Hegelian Dialectic social issues so we cant see one another as equals in this struggle.

The real crisis if the fact that the “Social Contract” has been broken. One aspect of the “Social Contract” is the younger generations fill the void as elders leave the workforce. They have lived well beyond their means & they are barely able to maintain this lifestyle while working so giving up their job is not on the radar. The business owner offers to “stay in the workforce but w/ a 30% reduction in pay, slashed healthcare, & reduced pension” to stay employed which leaves the graduate buried in student loan debt w/out work. The students are being told the RRR don’t want them to get access to food stamps & unemployment because they are “free loaders”. So the social tension grows & the divide that separates the citizens widens which makes these classes of people easily targeted by the politicos who are all too willing to promise milk & honey to all.

At some point we have to accept that the nation has changed due to decades of open border policies & incentives to outsource America’s manufacturing sector. When corporations can operate as “people”, dodge taxes through lobbyist campaigns & our Supreme Court permits them to buy elections with super PACs, the nation will inherently go where the lobbyists steer it. We are in a currency war & the FEDs stated goal is to devalue to the USD moving forward which will destroy the purchasing power of your savings while making the cost of living. Establish your “Weak Dollar Insurance Policy” now in physical gold & silver bullion & begin to participate in the sound money debate that is being waged all around you. Soon enough there will come a point where faith in the fiat paper dollar alone will not be enough. Inflation can degrade into hyperinflation when ignored which can turn a recession into a depression under the right circumstances. This can also take a currency war into a trade war. Remember that it is a far better strategy to PREPARE your portfolio than to attempt to REPAIR it once the damage has begun. Tick, tock.